Kirstin Wiegmann isn’t 100% sure where the name “Dreamstate Cafe” came from.
At the time the space at the corner of Lyndale and W. 26th Street became available, Wiegmann and partner Jeff Therkelsen had actually been thinking about opening another location of their wonderful plant-based restaurant, Reverie.
But the new site seemed too close to Reverie’s spot at the edge of Powderhorn Park in Minneapolis, and besides, Wiegmann remembers thinking, “If we build another Reverie, then we’re not building for the neighborhood. So that sparked the whole, ‘What does this neighborhood need? Why do we want to be here? Why did we like coming to Common Roots while we were here? What matters?”
The answers to those questions would shape Dreamstate Cafe, which is like… well, kind of like Reverie, in that it’s an all-day vegan cafe, except maybe a bit dreamier, with its curious owl mascot and its psychedelic flying fish and cactus mural. Wiegmann says they’re often asked about the meaning of the Reverie name, to which they often respond that it’s like “a daydream state.” The new name just fit, and Dreamstate debuted on Lyndale earlier this week.
“What if Reverie, but with cocktails?” is another question Dreamstate answers, and with wonderful results. There’s the moonbird ($15), a rummy, bubble-gum pink riff on a jungle bird that I described as “inhalable” and one of my dining partners described as “fucking dangerous.” We enjoyed a seasonally appropriate winter weather old-fashioned ($15) with orange and clove, but the favorite among our group was easily the beet Negroni ($14), an earthy and elegant concoction that was only subtly beety but with a pleasing vegetal depth. (If, like me, you’ve been really into beet Negronis of late, Italian Eatery also has a great and slightly beetier one.)
A disco ball spun lazily in the back of Dreamstate while the staff hustled around the room; there wasn’t an empty seat in the place by 7 p.m. Thursday, the cafe's first full day in business. Our trio occupied a few of the dozen or so seats around the central wooden bar, which is full-service. Otherwise, you can place your order at the counter and snag a table. As a bar sitter in general, I believe this to be an ideal setup in an increasingly counter-service world, and Wiegmann agrees. “I want more places like that,” she says. Are there other Twin Cities restaurants that do it this way? Drop ‘em in the comments.
As with Reverie, Dreamstate’s menu offers plenty of planty snacks and sandwiches, from sweet potato sopes ($12) to a pub burger with beer cheese ($18) to a fried chicken sandwich with pickled fennel and a lemongrass slaw ($17.50). But there are some more large plates here, like a lion's mane steak ($23) with black bean mole and a linguini dish ($20) with oyster mushroom “scallops.” (Intriguing, although something about ordering linguini at the bar felt unhinged.) It’s all vegan but accessible, and while the menus are quite different, it’s in a parallel lane to the comfort food Reverie has been serving for over a decade now.
One of the pals who joined me at the bar last night worked for years at the Chicago Diner, a forerunner in the “vegan fast food” movement that served a plant-based Reuben. He says Dreamstate’s corned beef sandwich ($17) not only rivals the Windy City version, but surpasses it. “Chicago Diner’s Reuben was ahead of its time but it was messy as fuck,” he says. “This one looked much easier to eat and tasted way better.” It boasted a satisfying smoky vegan gouda and a zippy house-made coleslaw that you should be able to order as a side.
(Note that at Dreamstate, as at Reverie, there’s no tipping; everything is included in the cost of your food.)
We had to try Dreamstate’s chili-crisp mock duck, which appears on shredded burnt end nachos ($14) and on the shredded burnt end tacos ($17), and opted for the latter. The mock duck is incredibly satisfying in texture and taste, thinly sliced and ridiculously savory. Note that the tacos are delivered in chalupa-esque shells—the fried bread exterior is neither a good nor bad thing on its own, but it did make things messier. This is not one to order on a first date unless you want that person to see ya licking chili oil off of your palms (or maybe it's going so well they’ll want to lick it off…).
Dreamstate’s yucca fries ($12), served with a roasted corn crema, were just fine, but if you’re only getting one snack to split, do the delicata squash donuts ($12)—they’re like sweeter, tastier onion rings, with a crispy tempura shell encasing the soft squash circles. I can't say enough good stuff about the accompanying mojo verde aioli; one member of our party lunged for the remaining dip when it was almost cleared with our empty plate. Speaking of sauces, they’re gonna ask if you want ketchup or the chili crisp aioli with the side of fries that accompany a sandwich—you really, really want the latter.
Dreamstate is now open from 8 a.m. to 11 p.m. daily, with happy hour from 3-5 p.m. every day (including on weekends), and a breakfast, lunch, and dinner menu (you can find them all here). It’s an ethos sort of inspired by the all-day cafe culture in Austin, Texas, says Wiegmann, where you can hit the same restaurant for a breakfast sandwich and coffee in the morning, a salad two hours later, and a beer or a cocktail two hours after that. And it feels like the right fit for the neighborhood, which includes Odd Mart, Disco Death, Lucky Cat Records and the new location of Boneshaker Books, which is renting the adjacent space to Dreamstate (708 W. 26th St., Minneapolis).
“I just want places where I can go and get everything I want,” Wiegmann says.
A dreamy thought, isn’t it?
Dreamstate Cafe
Address: 2558 Lyndale Ave. S., Minneapolis
Hours: 8 a.m. to 11 p.m. daily
